Person-Specific Non-shared Environmental Influences in Intra-individual Variability : A Preliminary Case of Daily School Feelings in Monozygotic Twins

Most behavioural genetic studies focus on genetic and environmental influences on inter-individual phenotypic differences at the population level. The growing collection of intensive longitudinal data in social and behavioural science offers a unique opportunity to examine genetic and environmental influences on intra-individual phenotypic variability at the individual level. The current study introduces a novel idiographic approach and one novel method to investigate genetic and environmental influences on intra-individual variability by a simple empirical demonstration. Person-specific non-shared environmental influences on intra-individual variability of daily school feelings were estimated using time series data from twenty-one pairs of monozygotic twins (age = 10 years, 16 female pairs) over two consecutive weeks. Results showed substantial inter-individual heterogeneity in person-specific non-shared environmental influences. The current study represents a first step in investigating environmental influences on intra-individual variability with an idiographic approach, and provides implications for future behavioural genetic studies to examine developmental processes from a microscopic angle

A modern network approach to revisiting the positive and negative affective schedule (PANAS) construct validity

Introduction: The factor structure of the Positive and Negative Affective Schedule (PANAS) is still a topic of debate. There are several reasons why using Exploratory Graph Analysis (EGA) for scale validation is advantageous and can help understand and resolve conflicting results in the factor analytic literature. Objective: The main objective of the present study was to advance the knowledge regarding the factor structure underlying the PANAS scores by utilizing the different functionalities of the EGA method. EGA was used to (1) estimate the dimensionality of the PANAS scores, (2) establish the stability of the dimensionality estimate and of the item assignments into the dimensions, and (3) assess the impact of potential redundancies across item pairs on the dimensionality and structure of the PANAS scores. Method: This assessment was carried out across two studies that included two large samples of participants. Results and Conclusion: In sum, the results are consistent with a two-factor oblique structure.Fil: Flores Kanter, Pablo Ezequiel. Universidad Empresarial Siglo XXI; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Garrido, Luis Eduardo. Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra; República DominicanaFil: Moretti, Luciana Sofía. Universidad Empresarial Siglo XXI; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra; República Dominicana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Medrano, Leonardo. Universidad Empresarial Siglo XXI; Argentina. Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra; República Dominicana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin

Effects of Active Hyperthermia on Cognitive Performance

Objective: Active hyperthermia elicited by a heat stress trial (HST) was hypothesized to negatively impact higher-order cognitive ability. Design and Setting: A test-retest design with one within-subjects variable was utilized for this investigation. The independent variable was thermal condition (normothermic and hyperthermic) and the dependent variables were four factors of cognitive performance (working memory, attention, response speed, and processing speed) with associated subtests. Participants completed practice tests and returned at least 24 hr later to perform the tests before and after the HST. Subjects: Eight healthy adult males (age = 24.9+3.2 yr; height= 123.0+46.8 cm; body mass = 89.9+10.5 kg) volunteered. Measurements: We assessed cognitive performance via the Headminder ™ Cognitive Stability Index administered using a laptop computer online via a wireless secure internet browser in the normothermic and hyperthermic conditions. Core body temperature was measured via ingestion of a CorTemp ™ Ingestible Core Body Temperature Sensor (HT150002, HQ Inc., Palmetto, FL). Results: The memory factor revealed a significant (t7 = 4.675, p=.002) 12.22 % decrease in number correct for the hyperthermic (mean correct